182 GALIUM. [class IV. ordkr i. 



terminal and lateral much-branclied panicles, bearing numerous 

 crowded, rather large, -white flowers; the segments of the corolla 

 spreading, their points acute, tapering into an awn-like point. Sir W. 

 J. Hooker remarks that the variety which he received from Mr. Banks, 

 agrees in every particular with the E. Bot. plant, except that the leaves 

 are all minutely, but distinctly and thickly, downy beneath. 



Habitat. — Hedges and pastures; not common. Norfolk — Mr. 

 Crowe. Portslade, Sussex, and near Cambridge — Mr. Borrer. Fish- 

 wives' Causeway, Portobello, near Edinburgh — Maugham. On the 

 north side of Killiney Hill, Ireland — Miss Green, fi. Near Plymouth 

 —Mr. G. Banks. 



Perennial; flowering from June to July. 



7. G. cine'reum, Allien. (Fig. 228.) grey spreading Bed-straxv. 

 Leaves six to eight in a whorl, linear, biistle-pointed, their mar- 

 gins with prickles pointing forwards ; stem weak, much branched, 

 smooth ; segments of the corolla taper-pointed. 



English Botany, Supplement, t. 2783. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 203. 

 — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 129. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. QQ. 



Stem loosely spreading, from one and a half to two feet high, square, 

 smooth, pale, repeatedly branched, and bearing numerous whorls of 

 from six to eight leaves, linear, slightly tapering at the base, with an 

 acute point terminating in a pale bristle, smooth and somewhat glau- 

 cous, the margins slightly reflexed and rough, with pale prickles, espe- 

 cially towards the point, in a single row, and pointing forwards ; they 

 are either spreading or close pressed. Inflorescence in terminal and 

 lateral branched panicles of few flowers: the corolla white, larger than 

 in the above species, with horizontal segments, each tipped with a short 

 taper, not bristly point, various in length and direction. Fruit smooth, 

 or slightly granulated. 



Habitat. — On the banks of the river Leith, near Slateford, three 

 miles from Edinburgh, and near Kiunaird, Angusshire, Scotland — Mr. 

 G. Don. 



Perennial ; flowering in August. 



This, Sir J. E. Smith observes, comes very near G. erectum, and 

 experience must prove how far its differences are constant, "We have 

 been obligingly favoured by Sir W. J. Hooker with specimens found 

 near Bath, which appear intermediate between the two : the leaves are 

 linear, scarcely lanceolate, with veiny reticulations ; the margins, espe- 

 cially towards the point, with two rows of prickles; the panicles few- 

 flowered, and the segments of the corolla tapering at the point. 



8 G. arista'tum, Linn. (Fig. 229.) bearded Bed-straw. " I^eaves 

 six in a whorl, stalked, lanceolate, flat, reticuldled with veins, 

 bristle-pointed, with minute marginal prickles pointing forward; 

 stem much branched, spreading, smooth ; seeds smooth, kidney- 

 tbaped, separated; corolla taper -pointed." 



